WANGARI MATHENGE

The exhibition’s title Re-membering derives from the artist’s series of the same name, which she began in the fall of 2024. It was inspired by Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s 2009 book Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance—which focuses on the critical impacts of colonialism and slavery on the experience of diasporic and continental Africans, as well as strategies of resistance and recovery. The first part of Mathenge’s project involved extensive study of Kenyan colonial literature and cultural objects from 1900 to 1963—the year of Kenya’s independence from the United Kingdom—to examine and interrogate how history and her own cultural identity had been formed. Her research resulted in the first cycle of canvases (dated 2025) in the series, featuring colourful overhead views of lone figures in states of contemplation, surrounded by accumulated books, objects, and textiles.

The new paintings on view at Lévy Gorvy Dayan constitute another path in Mathenge’s journey, representing her project as one of action. As she explains, “‘Re-membering’ signifies not merely the act of recall, but the active gathering and reassembly of what has been fragmented: cultural memory, inherited forms, histories, and ways of seeing.” In these new works, Mathenge portrays women—each an avatar for the artist—in vibrant domestic interiors interacting with, altering, and reconstructing the objects and spaces around them. Rich in symbols and signifiers of history, culture, and landscape—the imagined, charged scenes take place in the 1960s, a decade that saw a cultural shift in Africa following the liberation of numerous nations.

Directly relating to imagery in her canvases, Mathenge’s two sculptural works extend her investigation into three dimensions, creating opportunities for physical engagement with viewers. Re-membering VIII (Before Us, After Us, Ever Changing) (2025–26) features a wooden doorframe—intricately hand-carved by Malindi artisans—on which a densely embellished macramé textile is suspended. The sculpture derives from the nineteenth-century carved doors found on the East African coast, specifically those in the oldest preserved Swahili settlement of Lamu Old Town, Kenya. Decorated with diverse patterns and motifs, the elaborate doorframes represented the status, wealth, and prestige of their owners—and signified their access to social and economic networks established through trade and cultural exchange with India, the Middle East, East Asia, and Europe, as well as central Africa. Here, Mathenge activates this significant architectural legacy in New York, creating a threshold and portal through which history is discovered and inherited. The hanging knit tapestry, made with help from her family and members of her community, represents an unnamed landscape, echoing an abstracted map which appears in one of the painted compositions. “Rather than presenting the territory as fixed,” she states, “I wanted the work to evoke a landscape that is assembled from fragments: stitched together, carried forward, and continually reimagined.”

Displayed on a dress form, the ornate and voluminous knit sculpture Re-membering IX (The Shape of Inheritance) (2025–26) stems from the memory of a historical Gikuyu garment. The largest ethnic group in Kenya, to which Mathenge also belongs, the Gikuyu’s traditional modes of dress were deeply rooted in craft, in particular their practice of treating leather, including sheep- and goatskins, resulting in warm ochre- and cinnamon-toned clothes. With colonisation, Western fashion was imposed and adopted, resulting in a prolonged period in which Gikuyu dress was absent. Yet, in recent years, contemporary interpretations of traditional garments have notably reemerged in cultural ceremonies, such as weddings. Mathenge created this sculpture to be a reimagining, drawing from historical references and hues but also colonial influences like the Victorian bustle and train. Again bringing her practice into her community, the knitting was done with contributions from Mathenge’s circle, in her words, “extending ‘Re-membering’ into a collective act of making, in which cultural form is not simply preserved but remade through shared labour, memory, and care.” As the dress moves down towards the train, allusions to the human figure transform into those of landscape and terrain, bridging the distinctions between body and land. In Re-membering, Mathenge deconstructs how history is produced and experienced and composes how it can be inhabited and reenvisioned.

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About the Artist

Wangari Mathenge’s paintings explore community and belonging through history, memory, and place. Her detailed, colorful portrayals of figures and groups in domestic settings feature objects that are filled with personal meaning or act as cultural markers. In her work, Mathenge draws on her heritage as well as memories and events in her own life, often centering on aspects of the diasporic experience. Born in 1973 in Nairobi, Kenya, she moved to London with her family as a young child. She later relocated to Washington, DC, where she studied law—later practicing in Massachusetts—before turning to painting, completing an MFA in Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Mathenge lives and works in Nairobi and Buckinghamshire, England.

Mathenge’s paintings have recently been included in exhibitions at the Nasher Museum, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (2026); Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields (2025); Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, University of California, Davis (2025); Dallas Museum of Art (2025); Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm (2025); Kunstmuseum Basel (2024); Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Tennessee (2023–24); Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta (2023); Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town (2022–23); and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2021–22), among others. Her work is held in public collections including those of the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California; Dallas Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Arts; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Muzeum Susch, Switzerland; Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields; Rubell Museum, Miami; Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Courtesy Lévy Gorvy Dayan.